Rain pounded on the windshield Monday as Drew Pomeranz made his way from Akron, Ohio, to his hometown of Memphis, Tenn.

“Hold on. I can’t see anything right now,” Pomeranz told The Denver Post.

He can be forgiven. The 6-foot-5 left-hander’s head has been spinning for 48 hours as the central figure for the Rockies in the trade that sent ace Ubaldo Jimenez to the Cleveland Indians on Saturday. Pomeranz, 22, wandered out to the bullpen at Canal Park in Akron that night, believing he was going to take another small step to the big leagues. Five pitches into his warm-up session, Pomeranz was told to stop.

“I had heard some rumors, but I never thought they would trade me,” Pomeranz said. “I called my agent and tried to figure out what was going on. It was a crazy few hours.”

His full name is Thomas Andrew Pomeranz. He currently answers to Player To Be Named Later. The Rockies can’t discuss him by name because he’s not allowed to join their organization until the one-year anniversary of his draft signing. He accepted a $2.65 million signing bonus as the fifth pick overall on Aug. 17, 2010. So he won’t officially be a Rockie until Aug. 18.

The Rockies cleared him to take his car back home. He will fly to Phoenix on Wednesday and begin throwing closely monitored bullpen sessions at the Indians’ spring training facility in Goodyear, Ariz.

Can you say awkward?

“It’s such a weird situation. No one knew what I could and couldn’t do. I want to leave now and start pitching for them,” said Pomeranz, who will likely miss three to four starts because of this unusual situation. “But I will just stay in shape and be ready to go. I have probably been to every city in the big leagues, but of course, I have never been to Denver.”

He could be in a Rockies uniform by September if all goes as planned. General manager Dan O’Dowd didn’t rule out Pomeranz and right-hander Alex White, also acquired in the Jimenez trade, starting games this season. Pomeranz, a star at the University of Mississippi, gave the Rockies a glimpse of his potential March 6 by striking out three batters in a two-inning spring training appearance against them. White, a 2009 first-round pick, has pitched in the big leagues with Cleveland this season and will begin a rehabilitation assignment this week.

Pomeranz has moved quickly through the minor leagues. He mauled high Single-A competition, striking out 95 in 77 innings. The Double-A transition, while brief, has been seamless with Pomeranz posting a 2.57 ERA in three starts this season.

Pomeranz doesn’t know much about Coors Field.

“Everyone has been telling me it’s a hard place to pitch,” he joked. His older brother, Stuart, pitched for the Rockies’ Double-A Tulsa team last season.

Now, just over a year into professional baseball, Pomeranz finds himself the centerpiece of a trade that has drawn criticism in Denver and Cleveland.

Rockies fans are angry that their team traded its ace, a pitcher who started the All-Star Game last season. Indians fans believe their team surrendered too much for Jimenez.

“I don’t feel any pressure or anything like that,” Pomeranz said. “But really, it hasn’t set in and probably won’t for a few weeks until I am in the Rockies’ (farm) system. To be included in this deal, obviously the Rockies think highly of me. I am anxious for the challenge. But, yeah, it looks like this is going to be the craziest year of my life.”

Troy joined The Denver Post in 2002 as the Rockies' beat writer and became a Broncos beat writer in 2014 before assuming the lead role before the 2015 season. He is a past president of the local chapter of Baseball Writers Association of America and has won more than 20 local and national writing awards since graduating from the University of Colorado journalism school with honors in 1993.

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